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Your Weekly "Lost"-cap: Across the Sea

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all Moms out there! Hopefully you didn't burn a bunch of people and get stabbed by your ad hoc son!

Across the Sea

Claudia: "How did you get here?"Mom: "The same way you got here, by accident."

She could just be lying, but what if her mother's mother's mother did originally arrive there by accident? And how long has she been alive on the Island? It could be hundreds, even thousands of years! Clearly, once you "take over" you stop aging and simply wait for the next Candidate to stumble along. In any case, by the end of this episode we have one really large question answered. The Island's history is cracked open like a juicy coconut. But there's still some mystery about the very very origin of the Island, and I like it that way. It's like the questions surrounding our own origin here. Were we created by God? Did we evolve from plankton? Did aliens drop us off? Who knows if we'll ever know, but NOT knowing puts a sort of fire below us, encouraging us to find out more until we pass on.

Why do you love him more than me?

From the night they were born and placed into black and white blankets respectively, the Boy in Black and Jacob--the blonde boy Smlocke has seen in the jungle from time to time--have a complicated, but relatively affectionate relationship. Interesting sidebar: If you remember, Hurley found a manuscript called Bad Twin in the plane wreckage, which both he and Sawyer read. The author, Gary Troup, died in the crash. Sawyer never got to finish the manuscript because Jack burned the last ten pages in an argument.

MIB: "It's a game...you play it."Jacob: "How do you know how?"MIB: "I just know."

The game MIB finds is called Senet. Dating back to ancient Egypt, Senet is possibly the oldest "board game" in history. The word senet basically means "game of passing."

Egyptians believed the winner of the game to be protected by gods, thus the game was regarded as an important token for the dead to bring with them to the next life. Mom: "Jacob doesn't know how to lie. He's not like you."MIB: "What am I like?"Mom: "You're....special."

These two bits of conversation, the "I just know" and "You're special," remind me of Richard's Search for Someone Special. As a young boy, Locke apparently failed the special test. Richard created the test undoubtedly to help Jacob find his replacement...researching the various Candidates, so to speak. Locke was tested long ago and failed even then.

MIB: "What's dead?"Mom: "Something you will never have to worry about."
Unless you die or something.

Mom: "They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same."
This is exactly what MIB repeated to Jacob when they were chatting on the beach in last year's finale. Both MIB and his mother realize the true evil inside humanity. Jacob, on the other hand, could be construed as naive. But I like to think that he sees hope. Two different sides of the same coin: realism and optimism.

Mom: "That's what people do."MIB: "But we're people, does that mean we can hurt each other?"Mom: "I've made it so you can never hurt each other."For now? But what's this? Distracted by wet golden warm things...Mom: "This is the reason we're here."MIB: "What's down there?"Mom: "The warmest brightest light you've ever seen or felt. We must make sure no one ever finds it. That's why they want it. A little bit of this very same light is inside every man. But they always want more."

Here we have a representation of our own proverbial Tree of Knowledge. In the Adam and Eve story, the Tree symbolizes Free Will. Once the couple was tempted with this scrumptious nugget of info, they and--as the story goes--the rest of us were goners. Well sort of. Knowledge is power and, in the right hands, can be a positive thing. MIB's mom is right, however. We always want more and this is what corrupts the "good" aspect of knowledge.

Mom: "If the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere."
Similarly, as Jacob will explain to Richard one day: If you in turn let the darkness escape, it will spread.Mom: "I can't protect it forever."MIB: "Then who will?"Mom: "It will have to be one of you."

MIB: "Why can't Jacob see you?"Claudia: "Because I'm dead."
Just one more clue into the pile to indicate that MIB is much more "special" than Jacob.

Jacob to Mom: "He's leaving, he's going to the Other people."MIB to Jacob: "We don't belong with her."Mom: "You need to know this: Whatever you have been told, you will not be able to leave this Island."MIB: "That's not true...one day I can prove it."

Mom to Jacob: "If I had let [Claudia] live...she would've taken you back to her people and those people are bad. I couldn't let you become one of them. I needed you to stay good.

Jacob: "Am I good?"

This begs the question: Does this mean the Candidate replacing Jacob has to be "good" in the same way? Faux Mom went to great strides to keep her sons good, sheltering them from the rest of humanity. Clearly this was an important quality for The Protector to possess. But the remaining Lostie Candidates have been spoiled and poisoned by the outside world. This can only mean one thing. Perhaps a new era is on the horizon. Remember when MIB smashed Jacob's bottle of wine on the rocks? In addition to being symbolic of MIB's own wrath unleashed, maybe it also symbolized the end of the line for how the Island's Protector comes to be.

Sidebar for a moment: Isn't it strange how Locke would've been the ultimate choice in that he was obsessed with protecting the Island? Meanwhile Jack, or at least old Jack, did everything he could to leave. Now they've completely switched roles. It's sort of sad. While I'm not sure how, I hope Sideways Locke's life pans out because he really got the shiz end of the stick. He had no choice in the matter either. He tried so hard to get everyone back together to head back to the Island and then BEN of all people shows up and murders him.

To recollect my thoughts for a second: Perhaps the fact that Faux Mom originally thought MIB--not Jacob--would take her place, only to realize that Jacob was the true Candidate afterall is a direct parallel to Jack and Locke. Looking back we would assume Locke to be the ideal Candidate, but Jack came up outta nowhere. And now it does feel right. Jack has changed. Perhaps this goes to show us that it isn't necessarily all about fate OR free will...but rather whatever happens, happens....where ever the chips fall, that's where they lie.

<u>One day you can make up your own game and everyone will have to follow your own rules.</u>

MIB: "Why do you watch us Jacob?"Jacob: "I watch because I want to know if mother's right."MIB: "You want to know if they're bad. That woman may be insane but she's definitely right about that. I've lived among them for 30 years. They're greedy manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish...They are a means to an end. I found a way off the Island. There are very smart men among us...Men who are curious about how things work."

People who are basically precursors to Dharma.

MIB: "We have discovered places all over this Island where metal behaves strangely...we dig...this time we found something."

Again, like I said before, this is SUCH an epic echo of Locke and Jack...Locke wanted to stay, Jack wanted to leave. Now Jack wants to stay and of course MIB using Locke's body wants to leave.

MIB: "I spent 30 years searching for that place...I have walked this Island from end to end, not once coming close to finding it. What if the light underneath the Island, what if I could find it from some place else? They have some very interesting ideas of what to do with it."Donkey Wheel.Mom: "What is that?"MIB: "We're going to make an opening and attach the wheel to a system we're building: A system that channels the water and the light. And when I turn it, I'll finally be able to leave this place."Mom: "How do you know all this?"MIB: "I'm special mother."

Jacob: "What's down there?"Mom: "Life, death, rebirth. It's the source, the heart of the Island. Just promise me, no matter what you do, you won't ever go down there."Jacob: "Would I die?"Mom: "You'd would be worse than dying...much worse."

Notice she says "you'd be worse."

Mom: "You accept the responsibility that you will protect this place for as long as you can. It has to be you Jacob."Jacob: "You wanted it to be him. But now I'm all you have."Mom: "It was always supposed to be you Jacob. I see that now. One day you'll see it too. Until then, you don't really have a choice. Please: Take the cup and drink."

...Take this cup away from me, for I don't want to taste it's poison...
Definitely an allusion to Jesus in the Garden praying to pass on the metaphorical cup of suffering and death. Jacob drinking is perhaps symbolic of putting aside his Free Will as a sacrifice for what is to be done.Mom: "Now you and I are the same."

<u>Our very own Adam and Eve.</u>

Since the beginning of this whole six year journey (episode number five to be exact), we've wondered about these skeletons Locke dubbed Adam and Eve. So poignant to us now as we really do see the Island as a Garden of Eden...a garden still being protected against the flaws of humanity living upon its soil.

So much history literally lying there in that cave...the cave that symbolizes life as it gave the Losties water and shelter and protection when they needed it most, but also death as it is where Boone ultimately died. The Man in Black disguised himself as Jack's father to lead the Losties to this place. He said he wanted them to find water, but now we realize he was really trying to show them: Look what happened to me and what this Island is capable of.

As Jacob/MIB's mother explains, entering into the golden light is a fate worse than death. Much like Adam himself, MIB revolts against good to chose to live amongst humanity and find truth.

In another way, he's like Lucifer the fallen angel our culture now recognizes as the devil. Once good, but wanted more...knew there was something beyond the gates and choses to fall to find it.

It was Jacob's decision, however, to throw MIB into the light...and ultimately extract the light from him by doing so.MIB: "You can't kill my Jacob, she made it that way."Jacob: "Don't worry, brother, I'm not going to kill you."
The Smoke Monster is born. And the rest is history.

Well my brain is slop, how about yours? I'm not sure how much more they will touch on Dharma, Hanso, and the remainder of the Lostie history, but I think we can safely say that the information about this Tunnel of Love was somehow passed on through the pipeline, which caused the domino affect of people trying to locate the Island. What this says about Charles Widmore's motives is pretty dodgy. Perhaps keeping the Man in Black ON the Island is just as crucial as getting Widmore OFF...leaving the final Candidate to chill out for a little while without all the dramz.

On a somber note, next week's episode is titled What They Died For. Will more of our beloved Losties pass on? Sigh.

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Indeed! Technically speaking MIB is now a jumbled up mess of his soul and whatever attached itself to him in the tunnel...MIB wasn't necessarily evil at all, but just like Adam and Eve aren't "evil" in that story...just tempted to know more about life beyond the Garden/Island.

I think when the series is over, we won't get everything answered, but they will give us enough to draw our own conclusions and perhaps talk about the show for years to come: "I think they meant this in the ending" "No I think they meant this." The best pieces of entertainment are those that leave some elements up for grabs and keep people talking!

Something interesting to note/remember, also from this episode, is that MIB as we know him (have seen him in previous episodes) is not actually Jacob's brother - he is the embodiment of the smoke monster. This is the only true episode where we meet the actual MIB, and he was not a bad person. Jacob was never fighting his brother, he has always been competing with the smoke monster (as we know that now). I'm thinking, too, that the mother was the smoke monster before she died - it would explain how she killed all of MIB's people. But alas, it's probably better not to question this episode, because I'm assuming that next week's episode and the finale will not touch back on this issue (hopefully), and wrap up all the other impending questions that are still adrift.

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